"Our owners lost their home and had to move. They could not take us with them."

April 27, 2008|By Diane C. Lade Staff writer

A real estate agent, checking on a Boca Raton home in foreclosure, discovered them in the backyard: two 7-year-old mixed-breed spaniels, deliberately left behind by the former owners. The family left a note, including the name of their pets' veterinarian.

"Our owners lost their home and had to move. They could not take us with them."

That's the sign hanging on Sami and Danni's kennel at the Tri-County Humane Society in Boca Raton. The staff hopes someone soon will adopt both dogs, sisters together since birth.

Pets are emerging as the hidden victims of the housing crisis in South Florida, which has one of the highest foreclosure rates in the nation. Animal welfare organizations are bracing for a flood of requests and abandonments as the housing downturn continues to drag on. They are particularly concerned about older animals, whose more expensive veterinary care may be too much of a burden in a slow economy.

"When times are hard for people, they frequently are hard for pets as well," said Nancy Peterson, issues specialist with the Humane Society of the United States.

The Tri-County shelter is at capacity, with 350 animals. But five or six calls a day continue to come from people who are moving but can't take their dogs, and 40 more from pet owners wanting to surrender their cats.

The Peggy Adams Animal Rescue League in West Palm Beach, which takes in animals referred by Tri-County, has added a category to a database that tracks why people surrender their pets: foreclosure.

Last month, four pet owners said foreclosure was the reason they were giving up their animals; another 56 cited "moving" and 11 more said they were "unable to find housing" that allows pets.

"Some people treat their animals like they are an old TV set or a couch. They're moving on and they can't wait to get rid of them," said Executive Director Joan Carlson Radabaugh.

But for others, "it is really heartbreaking," Radabaugh added. "They have lived with their animals for years and they love them."

In some cases, homeowners facing foreclosure panic when they can't find a rental property that allows pets. Others must move in with family members who don't have room for Fido or Fluffy.

"We are hoping, in the future, to identify people who are in crisis and find [their pets] foster homes on a short-term basis," Radabaugh said. "And we need to show landlords that there are ways they can permit pets responsibly."

Instead of leaving their pets, animal welfare advocates and veterinarians urge owners to try to find temporary homes for them with family or friends. If all else fails, surrendering them to a rescue group or county shelter gives the animals a chance of finding a new home. The worst option: abandonment.

Officials with South Florida animal welfare groups and county shelters say it is hard to determine the effects of foreclosures, as owners don't have to give a reason when they bring in their pets. They suspect many who are losing their homes simply say they are moving.

But Broward County Animal Care and Regulation, like the league, is adding "foreclosures" to its surrender database to help them determine the scope of the issue.

The number of animal abandonment calls to the county related to evictions rose last year to 267 calls, compared with 198 in 2006. The shelter also gets stray animals that may be foreclosure victims, said Acting Director Beth Chavez.

Palm Beach County Animal Care and Control also saw an increase in the number of surrenders toward the end of last year, as the housing market worsened. There were 1,599 dogs and cats brought to the shelter by their owners from Oct. 1 through Dec. 31, 2007, compared with 1,406 animals during the same period the year before. But officials said they did not know how many animals were brought in because of foreclosure.

The first reports of a foreclosure pet crisis to reach the Humane Society of the United States came late last year out of California, which has the nation's highest foreclosure rates. South Florida is close behind. According to the Realestat.com research firm, 1,700 Palm Beach County homeowners and 2,200 in Broward were at least 90 days behind on their mortgage payments in February and close to foreclosure. That was double the number in February 2007.

The American Veterinary Medical Association became alarmed at reports of animals being found in vacant houses, near starvation or dead. In some cases, foreclosure proceedings were delayed and the pets had been locked inside for days. The association, the nation's leading authority on companion animal health, issued a statement this month, asking homeowners not to leave their pets or drop them on their veterinarians' doorsteps.

"It really disturbed us that people are doing this. These people are abandoning their animals under extraordinary circumstances," said Dr. Kimberly May, the association's assistant director of professional and public affairs.